Medicine: Earsplitting

"If a 200-lb. bomb exploded in the center' of State Street," Dr. Henry
B. Perlman of the University of Chicago told a meeting of ear, eye and
throat doctors in Chicago, "85% of the middle-ear injuries would be due
to the shock pulse itself, only 15% to bomb fragments. Excluding other
injuries, everyone within 50 feet would likely have ruptured eardrums
with bleeding from the ear. . . . Among those in stores facing the
street within this radius but shielded from the shock pulse by wall,
door or partition, only half of i%...